Helpers at the nest improve late-life offspring performance: evidence from a long-term study and a cross-foster experiment.

<h4>Background</h4>Conditions during an individual's rearing period can have far reaching consequences for its survival and reproduction later in life. Conditions typically vary due to variation in parental quality and/or the environment, but in cooperative breeders the presence of...

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Autores principales:	Lyanne Brouwer, David S Richardson, Jan Komdeur
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2012
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/f16de097849448728d276415a444e6ba
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:f16de097849448728d276415a444e6ba2021-11-18T07:23:18ZHelpers at the nest improve late-life offspring performance: evidence from a long-term study and a cross-foster experiment.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0033167https://doaj.org/article/f16de097849448728d276415a444e6ba2012-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/22496744/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203<h4>Background</h4>Conditions during an individual's rearing period can have far reaching consequences for its survival and reproduction later in life. Conditions typically vary due to variation in parental quality and/or the environment, but in cooperative breeders the presence of helpers adds an important component to this. Determining the causal effect of helpers on offspring fitness is difficult, since high-quality breeders or territories are likely to produce high-quality offspring, but are also more likely to have helpers because of past reproductive success. This problem is best resolved by comparing the effect of both helping and non-helping subordinates on offspring fitness, however species in which both type of subordinates commonly occur are rare.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>We used multi-state capture-recapture models on 20 years of data to investigate the effect of rearing conditions on survival and recruitment in the cooperatively breeding Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis), with both helping and non-helping subordinates. The number of helpers in the rearing territory, but not territory quality, group- or brood size, was positively associated with survival of offspring in their first year, and later in life. This was not a result of group size itself since the number of non-helpers was not associated with offspring survival. Furthermore, a nestling cross-foster experiment showed that the number of helpers on the pre-foster territory was not associated with offspring survival, indicating that offspring from territories with helpers do not differ in (genetic) quality.<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>Our results suggest that the presence of helpers not only increase survival of offspring in their first year of life, but also subsequent adult survival, and therefore have important fitness consequences later in life. This means that when calculating the fitness benefits of helping not only short-term but also the late-life benefits have to be taken into account to fully understand the evolution of cooperative breeding.Lyanne BrouwerDavid S RichardsonJan KomdeurPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 7, Iss 4, p e33167 (2012)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Lyanne Brouwer David S Richardson Jan Komdeur Helpers at the nest improve late-life offspring performance: evidence from a long-term study and a cross-foster experiment.
description	<h4>Background</h4>Conditions during an individual's rearing period can have far reaching consequences for its survival and reproduction later in life. Conditions typically vary due to variation in parental quality and/or the environment, but in cooperative breeders the presence of helpers adds an important component to this. Determining the causal effect of helpers on offspring fitness is difficult, since high-quality breeders or territories are likely to produce high-quality offspring, but are also more likely to have helpers because of past reproductive success. This problem is best resolved by comparing the effect of both helping and non-helping subordinates on offspring fitness, however species in which both type of subordinates commonly occur are rare.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>We used multi-state capture-recapture models on 20 years of data to investigate the effect of rearing conditions on survival and recruitment in the cooperatively breeding Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis), with both helping and non-helping subordinates. The number of helpers in the rearing territory, but not territory quality, group- or brood size, was positively associated with survival of offspring in their first year, and later in life. This was not a result of group size itself since the number of non-helpers was not associated with offspring survival. Furthermore, a nestling cross-foster experiment showed that the number of helpers on the pre-foster territory was not associated with offspring survival, indicating that offspring from territories with helpers do not differ in (genetic) quality.<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>Our results suggest that the presence of helpers not only increase survival of offspring in their first year of life, but also subsequent adult survival, and therefore have important fitness consequences later in life. This means that when calculating the fitness benefits of helping not only short-term but also the late-life benefits have to be taken into account to fully understand the evolution of cooperative breeding.
format	article
author	Lyanne Brouwer David S Richardson Jan Komdeur
author_facet	Lyanne Brouwer David S Richardson Jan Komdeur
author_sort	Lyanne Brouwer
title	Helpers at the nest improve late-life offspring performance: evidence from a long-term study and a cross-foster experiment.
title_short	Helpers at the nest improve late-life offspring performance: evidence from a long-term study and a cross-foster experiment.
title_full	Helpers at the nest improve late-life offspring performance: evidence from a long-term study and a cross-foster experiment.
title_fullStr	Helpers at the nest improve late-life offspring performance: evidence from a long-term study and a cross-foster experiment.
title_full_unstemmed	Helpers at the nest improve late-life offspring performance: evidence from a long-term study and a cross-foster experiment.
title_sort	helpers at the nest improve late-life offspring performance: evidence from a long-term study and a cross-foster experiment.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2012
url	https://doaj.org/article/f16de097849448728d276415a444e6ba
work_keys_str_mv	AT lyannebrouwer helpersatthenestimprovelatelifeoffspringperformanceevidencefromalongtermstudyandacrossfosterexperiment AT davidsrichardson helpersatthenestimprovelatelifeoffspringperformanceevidencefromalongtermstudyandacrossfosterexperiment AT jankomdeur helpersatthenestimprovelatelifeoffspringperformanceevidencefromalongtermstudyandacrossfosterexperiment
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Helpers at the nest improve late-life offspring performance: evidence from a long-term study and a cross-foster experiment.

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